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MASSACHUSETTS  AND   THE   WAR  TAX, 


SPEECH 


HON.  ALEX. 'h."  BULLOCK, 


(SPEAKER,) 


',u$u\mi\%  f  ouse  of  git^resentatilin, 


^A.I'RIL.    lO,    X863. 


BOSTON: 

WRIGHT  &  POTTER,  PRINTERS,  4  SPRING  LANE. 
1862. 


\( 


AST 

3-1 


MASSACHUSETTS  AND  THE  WAR  TAX. 


Mr.  Speaker, — During  a  period  of  three  months 
marked  by  events  in  the  country  which  in  other  ages 
would  have  furnished  history  for  a  generation,  involv- 
ing, frequently,  painful  alternations  of  hope  and  doubt, 
— at  one  time  darkened  by  general  depression,  but  of 
late  become  luminous  by  a  series  of  achievements 
which  promise  the  happiest  results, — it  has  been  our 
duty,  throughout  the  whole,  to  attend  patiently  to  the 
interests  of  ou]-  own  Commonwealth.  That  duty,  I 
need  not  say,  has  been  discharged  with  an  unusual 
degree  of  harmony  among  ourselves.  One  of  the  last 
of  our  public  acts  is  now  under  consideration,  and 
upon  that  we  are  all  agreed,  which  is  to  levy  the  tax. 
All  the  other  assurances  of  war  have  been  spread  out 
so  long  and  so  vividly,  that  our  senses  have  become 
accustomed  to  the  scenes  passing  around  us.  With- 
out conditions  we  have  urged  the  General  Government 
to  furnish  appliances  for  the  conflict ;  and  upon  the 
able,  patriotic,  and  energetic  Chief  Magistrate  of  Mas- 
sachusetts we  have  conferred  full  authority  for  every 
form  of  expenditure  which  the  service  might  require. 
We  have  met  the  exigency  without  reservation.     But 


4  MASSACHUSETTS    AND   THE   WAR  TAX. 

now  it  is  that  another  evidence  of  a  state  of  war  con- 
fronts us,  and  demands  our  recognition  and  action. 
The  bills  are  coming  in ;  the  debt  is  to  be  provided 
for.  The  bills  are  many,  and  the  debt  will  be  large ; 
but  they  are  upon  us,  and  must  be  met. 

And  here  let  me  appeal  to  the  Representatives,  and 
through  them  to  the  people  of  the  State,  not  to  over- 
look one  consideration  which  may  well  furnish  a 
solace  amid  the  public  burdens.  Since  war  has  been 
forced  upon  us, — war  of  such  dimensions  that,  in  com- 
parison with  it,  all  our  previous  experience  passes  into 
an  eclipse, — we  ought  to  regard  it  as  some  compensa- 
tion for  the  sacrifices  required  of  us,  that  the  conflict 
is  removed  from  our  own  doors.  In  the  commence- 
ment of  the  contest,  and  in  one  of  his  last  public 
addresses,  Mr.  Douglas,  whose  untimely  death  I  am 
sure  we  all  deplore,  justly  exhorted  the  government 
to  act  with  such  vigor,  that  it  should  be  a  war  in  the 
cotton  fields  of  the  South,  and  not  in  the  corn  fields 
of  the  North.  That  has  been  accomplished.  And 
when  the  people  of  Massachusetts  look  about  them, 
and  contemplate  their  own  condition, — their  fields, 
and  marts,  and  workshops  comparatively  undisturbed ; 
the  ordinary  channel  and  current  of  their  life,  if  im- 
peded, not  closed  up ;  their  institutions  under  free  and 
full  progress ;  their  domestic  tranquillity  not  molested, 
— and  compare  all  this  with  the  waste  and  desolation 
which  have  swept  the  field  of  operations  in  the  States 
upon  the  border,  certainly  they  cannot  fail  to  appre- 


MASSACHUSETTS    AND   THE   WAR  TAX.  5 

ciate  the  beneficent  Providence  which  has  tempered 
the  severity  of  their  burdens  with  a  mercy  of  divine 
economy.  The  war  produces  embarrassments  here  ; 
but  there  are  States  where  it  makes  solitudes. 

In  our  discussions  concerning  the  public  debt  and 
taxation,  whether  here  or  in  the  country,  I  deem  it  of 
high  importance  that  we  should  avoid  all  extremes 
of  sensation.  Some  there  are  who  speak  of  national 
bankruptcy ;  while  others  treat  our  unexampled  ex- 
penditures as  a  light  matter,  not  likely  to  produce  any 
appreciable  inconvenience  to  the  people.  Both  classes 
of  persons  are,  in  my  judgment,  equally  unsafe  guides. 
The  accumulation  of  debt,  which  is  now  unavoidable, 
is  unprecedented  in  its  magnitude ;  but  it  will  be  met, 
and  we  shall  not  become  bankrupt. 

We  ought  not  to  attempt  any  disguise  of  the 
magnitude  of  the  present  expenditures.  They  are 
undoubtedly  far  in  advance  of  any  example  of  which 
we  have  historical  information.  War,  at  all  times 
expensive,  has  been  rendered  doubly  extravagant  in 
our  case,  by  the  surprise  and  the  exigency  which 
demanded  immediate  outlays,  without  the  benefit  of 
that  order  and  system  which  can  only  be  realized 
when  there  is  time  for  deliberation  and  preparation. 
Waste  and  fraud,  also,  have  doubtless  done  their  full 
share  to  swell  the  amount.  At  this  moment,  no  man 
in  the  country  can  have  any  exact  idea  of  the  rate 
at  which  we  are  massing  the  debt.  There  is  a  dis- 
crepancy between  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  and 


6  MASSACHUSETTS    AND   THE   WAR   TAX. 

the  gentlemen  of  the  Ways  and  Means,  and  I  doubt 
if  any  two  of  the  latter  would  state  the  matter  in  the 
same  figures.  Averaging  these  authorities,  we  might 
find  that  our  expenditure  will  amount  to  800,000,000 
dollars  or  900,000,000  dollars  by  January  next,  and 
to  1,200,000,000  dollars  by  July  following.*  I  see  it 
stated  by  a  member  of  the  Senate,  that  we  are 
expending  at  the  rate  of  thirty  dollars  a  head  in  a 
loyal  population  of  23,000,000,  while  England  at 
the  height  of  her  war  with  Napoleon,  did  not  go 
beyond  twenty  dollars  per  head.  I  do  not  know  how 
such  statements  in  detail  may  correspond  with  the 
actual  facts ;  but  it  is  certain  that  the  accumulation 
of  our  disbursements  is  without  a  parallel.  The 
greatest  stride  that  was  ever  made  in  the  British 
debt  was  from  1803  to  1815,  a  period  of  twelve 
years,  during  which  England  conducted  the  battles 
of  the  nationalities  of  Europe,  increasing  her  debt  in 
that  time  a  little  more  than  1,500,000,000  dollars. 
And  who  of  us  all  would  not  be  willing  to-day  to 
close  in  advance  the  final  account  of  the  present  war, 
by  estimating  the  cost  of  the  subjugation  of  the 
rebellion,  and  the  recovery  of  the  public  liberties, 
from  April,  1861,  to  April,  1863,  to  be  no  more  after 
the  lapse  of  two  years,  than  that  of  Great  Britain  at 
the  expiration  of  twelve  years'?  Such  rapidity  and 
extent  of  indebtedness  as  this,  would  have  baffled  the 

*  Mr.  Stevens,  the  Chairman  of  Ways  and  Means,  has  since  stated  the 
expenditures  at  a  much  higher  rate. 


MASSACHUSETTS    AND   THE   WAR   TAX,  i 

powers  of  any  European  government  recorded  in  the 
annals  of  time.  If,  at  the  commencement  of  this 
century,  the  British  ministry  had  promulgated  its 
intention  to  expend  a  thousand  five  hundred  millions 
in  resisting  for  two  years  the  arch  foe  of  the  peace 
and  stability  of  the  island,  solemn  and  profound  as 
was  the  sense  of  danger  and  of  duty  which  pervaded 
the  minds  of  Englishmen,  I  verily  believe  the  keys  of 
office  would  have  fallen  from  the  hands  of  admin- 
istration in  thirty  days.  The  American  people,  and 
the  American  people  alone,  could  be  called  upon  to 
cope  with  the  great  problem  which  in  the  foreknowl- 
edge of  God  has  been  reserved  for  our  time  and  our 
country.  Believe  not  that  we  are  to  sustain  these 
burdens,  and  not  have  care  and  thought  engraved 
upon  our  faces.  The  day  of  severe  fact  is  before  us. 
Nevertheless,  the  analogies  of  our  experience,  the 
miracles  of  our  history,  the  configuration  of  our  land, 
richest  of  the  earth  and  made  for  empire,  the  knit 
and  compacted  character  of  our  people,  built  up 
on  Teutonic  foundations,  yet  flexible  with  the  capaci- 
ties of  all  choicest  nationalities,  the  gloom  and 
despair  of  our  fathers  turned  to  hope  and  fruition 
before  they  slept,  move  us  forward  with  inspiring 
belief  that  what  would  have  discouraged  other 
nations,  is  in  our  case  a  practicality  which  a  single 
generation  can  crown  with  performance. 

We   are   entering,  then,  upon  an  era   of  national 
debt.     Great  wars  always  bequeath  such  a  legacy  to 


O  MASSACHUSETTS    AND   THE   WAR   TAX. 

succeeding   peace.     This   government   is  running  an 
account   which    cannot   be    liquidated    in    ten    years, 
perhaps  not  in  twenty ;  and  it  is  right  that  it  should 
be  so.     We  are  struggling  for  the  patrimony  of  our 
children,  and    some    portion    of  the  cost  will  justly 
descend  to  them  with  the  blessings  of  the  purchase.    I 
hear  it  sometimes  said  in  the  street  that  a  public  debt 
is  a  public  good ;  but  such  remarks  always   appear  to 
me  as  the  impulse   of  unreflecting   minds.      It  was 
never  clear  to  my  comprehension  how  a  debt  could  be 
a  benefit.     In  his  opinions  upon  that  subject,  Hamil- 
ton  in   his   youth    possessed  at  least  the  wisdom  of 
Burke  in  his    age.       And  yet   the   history  of  Great 
Britain,  and  of  our  country  as  w^ell,  has  shown  that  a 
national  debt,  if  it  be  a  burden,  is  nothing  more.    We 
of  this  generation  have  been  so  long  enabled  to  pay  as 
we  go  along,  that  it  is  no  wonder  that  the  shadows  of 
the  present  fiscal  emergency  darken  the  spirits  of  men 
whose  life  has  been  accustomed  only  to  peace  theories 
of  finance.     In  this  respect  we  are  only  reproducing 
the  experience  of  those  who  have  gone  before  us.     It 
is  now  a  hundred  and  seventy  years  since  the  first  per- 
manent  English  loan  was  made  by  Parliament,  inau- 
gurating that  policy  which  has  astonished  half  a  dozen 
generations   of  statesmen    by  a  debt  constantly  aug- 
menting and  yet  not  visibly  obstructing  the  prosperity 
of  the  empire.     The  historian,  who  better  than  others 
has  analyzed  the  domestic  and  social  condition  of  the 
people — Lord    Macaulay — has   portrayed    the    alarm 


MASSACHUSETTS    AND   THE   WAR  TAX.  9 

which  seized  upon  business  men  and  publicists  as 
often  as  any  accession  was  made  to  the  debt  of 
England : — 

"  At  every  stage  in  the  growth  of  that  debt  it  lias  been  seriously 
asserted  by  wise  men  that  bankruptcy  and  ruin  were  at  liand.  At 
every  stage  in  the  growth  of"  that  debt  the  nation  has  set  up  the  same 
cry  of" anguish  and  despair.  Yet  still  the  debt  went  on  growing;  and 
still  bankruptcy  and  ruin  were  as  remote  as  ever." 

This  apprehension  reached  the  acme  of  discourage- 
ment in  1815,  when  at  the  close  of  the  last  of  the 
wars  with  France  the  funded  debt  of  England 
amounted  to  four  thousand  millions  of  dollars. 

"It  was  in  truth  a  gigantic,  a  fabulous  debt ;  and  we  can  hardly 
wonder  that  the  cry  of  des[)air  should  have  been  louder  (ban  ever. 
But  again  the  cry  was  found  to  have  been  as  unreasonable  as  ever. 
The  beggared,  the  bankrupt  society  not  only  proved  able  to  meet  all 
its  obligations,  but,  while  meeting  those  obligations,  grew  richer  and 
richer  so  flist  that  the  growth  could  almost  be  discerned  by  the  eye." 

The  same  writer  gives  his  explanation  of  the  fallacy 
of  those  who  prophesied  nothing  but  general 
destruction  : — 

"They  erroneously  imagined  that  there  was  an  exact  analogy 
between  the  case  of  an  individual  who  is  in  debt  to  another  individ- 
ual, and  the  case  of  society  which  is  in  debt  to  a  part  of  itself".  They 
were  under  an  error  not  less  serious  touching  the  icsources  of  the 
country.  They  made  no  allowance  for  the  effect  produced  by  the 
incessant  progress  of  every  experimental  science,  and  by  the  inces- 
sant efforts  of  every  man  to  get  on  in  life.  They  saw  ilia)  the  debt 
grew;  and  they  forgot  that  otlicr  things  grew  as  well  as  llic  debt." 

And  the  noble  historian  affirms  without  fear  of 
contradiction   that  England  may  in  the  next  century 


10  MASSACHUSETTS    AND   THE   WAR  TAX. 

be  better  able  to  bear  a  debt  of  eight  thousand  millions 
of  dollars  than  she  is  at  the  present  time  to  bear  her 
existing  load.  It  is  quite  possible  that  the  love  of 
the  sparkle  of  antithesis,  which  marks  the  writings  of 
the  brilliant  essayist  and  philosopher,  may  have 
beguiled  him  into  a  somewhat  extreme  presentation  of 
substantial  truths ;  but  I  think  we  must  admit  the 
soundness  of  the  political  economy  which  imparts 
strength  to  the  silver  nerves  of  his  rhetoric.  At  all 
events,  the  views  he  has  presented  of  the  resources  of 
the  English  nation  as  the  solid  basis  for  public  debt, 
may  be  applied  with  redoubled  and  intensified  force 
to  the  actual  and  prospective  circumstances  of  our 
own  country.  With  a  land  affluent  beyond  compari- 
son in  the  minerals  which  control  civilization  and 
supply  currency  and  the  useful  arts,  wanting  literally 
nothing  in  the  meSns  of  subsistence,  overstocked  with 
the  products  of  diversified  agriculture,  a  workshop  and 
a  granary  for  the  markets  of  the  world,  teeming  with 
a  population  whose  inventive  genius  and  elastic 
industry  as  far  exceed  those  of  the  older  countries  as 
our  ratio  of  progress  has  distanced  theirs  : — and  above 
all,  vitalized  by  personal  freedom,  which  is  the  parent 
of  productive  power, — the  United  States,  and  Massa- 
chusetts as  a  component  part  and  for  all  her  share, 
can  bear  and  extinguish  a  debt  of  fifteen  hundred 
millions  with  less  suffering  and  less  inconvenience 
than  any  other  nation  that  has  existed  since  the 
creation  of  man. 


MASSACHUSETTS    AND    THE   WAR   TAX.  11 

There  is  of  course  a  limit  to  public  credit.  The 
extent  to  which  we  can  safely  pledge  our  ow^n  property 
and  production  and  those  of  our  children,  cannot  be 
very  well  defined.  I  suppose  the  point  at  which  the 
debt  of  the  country  would  cease  to  be  secure  and  would 
begin  to  work  national  degeneracy,  would  be  reached 
whenever  the  debt  should  become  so  large  that  the 
productive  industry  of  the  country  could  not  pay  the 
interest  and  gradually  sink  the  principal  without  stop- 
ping the  general  growth  and  progress.  I  have  no 
apprehensions  that  we  are  destined  to  reach  that  point. 
First,  then,  we  must  have  sufficient  revenues  to  meet 
the  interest  and  reduce  the  principal.  No  State  can 
exist  and  advance  without  adhering  to  this  principle. 
It  was  inscribed  upon  the  columns  of  the  administra- 
tion of  Washington.  At  the  commencement  of  our 
life,  Hamilton,  who  brought  order  out  of  chaos,  wished 
to  see  it  incorporated  as  a  fundamental  maxim  in  the 
financial  system  of  the  United  States,  that  the  creation 
of  a  debt  should  always  be  accompanied  with  the 
means  of  extinguishment.  This  he  regarded  as  the 
true  secret  for  rendering  public  credit  immortal.  Our 
present  necessities  absolutely  devote  us  to  this  principle. 
So  soon  as  our  revenues  shall  be  seen  to  meet  tliis  requi- 
sition, whatever  be  tlic  modes  of  taxation  fioin  whicli 
those  revenues  are  derived,  our  securities  will  he  in  high 
favor  and  feverish  excitement  will  give  way  to  general 
confidence  ;  and  until  we  settle  that  point,  bank  officers 
may  visit  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  and  \ui  may 


12  MASSACHUSETTS    AND   THE   WAR  TAX. 

rdiiiii  the  visits,  all  in  vain.  How  this  is  to  be  accom- 
j)lislie(l,  it  l)ol()n<»s  to  Congress  to  study  and  determine. 
Whatever  system  of  taxation  may  be  at  first  adopted, 
experience  will  doubtless  suggest  improvements  which 
can  only  be  ascertained  by  experiment.  Ikit  for  a 
stable  credit,  which  shall  leave  men  at  liberty  to 
pursue  their  business  and  labor  to  receive  its  rewards 
without  the  fear  of  disturbance,  such  measures  of  reve- 
nue must  be  as  positively  certain  as  they  are  uncondi- 
tionally essential.  And  it  is  for  the  interest  of  every 
man,  whether  he  be  rich  or  poor,  that  such  taxes  be  at 
once  established  and  maintained.  Hesitation,  doubt, 
uncertainty  in  this  respect,  has  already  produced  many 
of  our  financial  troubles.  For  nine  months  we  have 
been  illustrating  the  language  of  the  Roman  orator, 
whose  statesmanlike  philosophy,  with  slight  diversion 
from  its  provincial  and  literal  application,  may  be 
repeated  with  practical  reference  to  our  present  neces- 
sities of  taxation : — 

^^  Nam  in  ceteris  rebus,  qmim  venit  calamitas,  tarn  detrimentum 
accipitur ;  at  in  victigalibus,  non  solum  adventus  mali,  sed  etiam 
metus  ipse,  offer t  calamitatein." 

Second,  this  interest  and  sinking  fund  must  be  fur- 
nished without  stopping  the  public  growth.  I  do  not 
believe  we  are  to  have  that  amount  of  debt  which  cannot 
be  thus  met.  By  the  census  of  1860  the  value  of  real 
and  personal  property  in  the  country  is  returned  as 
somewhat  over  17,000,000,000  dollars,  and  it  appears 
that    the   increase   since  1860   has    been   very  much 


MASSACHUSETTS    AND    THE   WAR   TAX.  13 

more  than  one  hundred  per  cent.  A  sum,  therefore, 
measured  by  one-tenth  to  one-fiftli  of  the  surphis  or 
profits  of  this  period  of  ten  years,  would  liquidate  the 
probable  expenditures  of  the  war.  The  y)roperty  of  the 
people  of  the  loyal  States  alone  is  nearly  13,000,000,000 
dollars.  I  am  aware  there  is  but  little  comfort  to  the 
tax-payer  to  be  derived  from  this  style  of  statement ; 
and  yet  it  ought  to  nerve  our  faith  and  hope,  to  know, 
as  well  as  we  know  any  thing,  that  if  the  authority  of 
the  Federal  Government  be  re-established,  our  power 
be  again  asserted  at  home  and  abroad,  the  sea  again 
be  made  to  murmur  with  the  teels  of  our  commerce, 
and  the  vast  and  complicated  machinery  of  our  internal 
production  be  again  set  to  its  music,  the  fractional 
part  of  our  annual  increase  will  take  care  of  the  whole 
national  debt  before  the  child  born  to-day  shall  arrive 
at  the  age  of  citizenship.  The  property  of  the  country 
is  indeed  the  basis  upon  whicli  its  liabilities  are  upheld  ; 
but  not  by  that  alone  do  I  measure  the  certainty,  or 
time,  or  facility  of  their  payment.  The  property  is  the 
representative  of  production.  And  it  is  the  produc- 
tion of  the  people,  it  is  their  industry  which  moves  on 
with  such  marvellous  progression,  it  is  the  amazing 
vigor  and  versatility  and  self-development  of"  tlieir 
genius,  which  will  bear  a  burden  tliat  would  ( iiisli  tlie 
pillars  of  any  other  government  beside. 

In  all  these  considerations  Massachusetts  is  a  party 
largely  in  interest.  Whatever  measures  of  taxation 
arc    to    go    into    effect   for    tlie    relief"  of   the;   public 


14  MASSACHUSETTS    AND   THE   WAR  TAX. 

treasury,  the  people  of  this  Commonwealth,  as  a 
loyal  and  paying  community,  will  be  large  partakers. 
They  are  offering  their  sons  on  the  altar  of  the 
Constitution,  and  they  expect  to  contribute  their 
money  and  their  industry  in  the  common  expendi- 
tures. But  there  are  some  aspects  of  these  financial 
relations,  in  which  we  of  Massachusetts  will  appear 
prominently  and  conspicuously  beyond  the  lot  of 
other  States.  I  have  barely  time  to  allude  to  the 
topic. 

I  think  it  just  that  we  should  not  conceal  the  fact 
that  the  people  of  Massachusetts  will  be  compelled 
by  the  circumstances  of  their  domestic  condition  to 
pay  an  amount  of  the  expenses  of  the  war  beyond 
their  proportion  of  population.  Any  plan  of  internal 
taxation  which  is  likely  to  be  adopted,  will  fall  in  a 
large  degree  upon  the  industry,  upon  the  production 
and  consumption  of  the  people  ;  in  all  of  which  there 
is  no  State  which  in  proportion  to  its  numbers 
presents  so  great  a  variety  and  luxury  of  life  to  be 
subjected  to  tribute,  as  this  Commonwealth,  The 
burdens  of  the  debt  cannot  in  any  considerable 
measure  be  laid  upon  the  lands  of  the  people.  It 
is  not  public  policy  that  they  should  be.  In  Great 
Britain,  where  this  matter  of  taxation  has  been  re- 
duced to  almost  a  science,  I  understand  that  land 
pays  directly  not  much  more  than  one-sixth  of  the 
whole  tax.  The  condition  of  the  real  estate  of  a 
country  is   one   of  the  standards  of  its   civilization, 


MASSACHUSETTS    AND   THE  "WAR  TAX.  15 

and,  the  stability  and  uniformity  of  its  value  must 
be  maintained  by  all  practicable  legislation.  It  is 
therefore  directly  upon  personal  property,  as  one  of 
the  instruments  of  production,  it  is  upon  production 
and  consumption,  it  is  upon  labor  and  enterprise, 
that  the  next  twenty  years  of  taxation  \vill  greatly 
depend. 

In  these  respects  Massachusetts  is  destined  to  be- 
come a  prominent  contributor.  I  find  by  inspecting 
the  statistics  of  thp  census  of  1860,  so  far  as  I  have 
seen  them,  that  while  Massachusetts  returns  one- 
seventeenth  part  of  the  real  estate  of  the  loyal  States, 
she  actually  shows  one-eighth  part  of  the  whole 
personal  estate.  In  this  particular  no  State  is  her 
equal,  except  imperial  New  York,  and  even  that 
State  is  absolutely  but  a  little  in  advance  of  us, 
while  proportionately  she  is  far  behind  us.  For 
while  New  York  shows  considerably  more  than 
double  the  real  property  of  Massachusetts,  her  per- 
sonal is  in  excess  of  ours  by  a  mere  fraction,  large 
and  populous  as  New  York  is.*  These  are  striking 
facts.  They  place  us  far  in  the  van  of  other  States 
in  respect  to  our  personal  property ;  and  personal 
property  is  peculiarly  an  exponent  of  our  indus- 
trial power,  one  of  the  chief  instruments  of  our 
production,  the  tools  of  our  industry  and  enterprise ; 
and    these   agencies  of  i)roduction  and  industry    are 

Koal  Estate.  I'lTsonnl  IMopcrty. 

*  New  York,       ....        .f  1,009,058,080  00        $320,800,.558  00 
Massachusetts,        .        .        .  475,413,105  00  301,744,051  00 


16  MASSACHUSETTS    AND   THE  WAR  TAX. 

to  a  great  extent  representatives  of  the  proportion 
in  which  Ave  shall  be  brought  to  bear  the  expenses 
of  the  war. 

If  now  you  ask  whether  Massachusetts  will  not  be 
called  upon  to  sustain  burdens  beyond  any  thing  she 
has  experienced  in  the  last  forty  years,  I  answer, 
certainly  she  will.  If  then  it  be  asked  whether  she 
can  bear  the  load,  I  answer,  undoubtedly  she  can. 
I  invoke  the  testimony  of  her  history  and  experience. 
Her  people  in  days  gone  by  have  illustrated  both  the 
ability  and  willingness  to  support  government  and 
liberty  by  every  conceivable  sacrifice.  I  cannot  forget 
that  w^ithin  two  years  after  the  engagement  which  is 
commemorated  by  yonder  shaft,  a  tax  of  100,000 
pounds  was  laid  upon  the  State  "  when  few  had  a 
competency  and  none  could  boast  of  abundance." 
I  cannot  overlook  the  fact  that  in  1780  the  debt  of 
Massachusetts  was  5,000,000  dollars,  or  one-fourth 
part  of  the  estimated  valuation  of  her  property.  I 
cannot  speak  of  the  present  war  without  being 
reminded  that  during  the  Revolution,  and  up  to  1790, 
Massachusetts  had  actually  paid  towards  the  public 
expenses  six  and  a  half  millions  of  dollars,  and  that 
this  amount  was  afterward  increased  to  ten  millions 
by  the  incredible  exertions  of  her  small  population. 
While  I  am  discussing  our  present  necessities,  and  the 
adequacy  of  our  resources  to  meet  them,  a  committee 
of  the  General  Court  of  1814  file  in  the  area  before 
me   and   report,   that  during    the   twenty-four   years 


MASSACHUSETTS    AND   THE   WAR  TAX.  17 

succeeding  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution,  the  federal 
treasury  had  received  from  Massachusetts  alone  thirty 
millions  of  dollars.  And  we  are  to  remember  that 
these  amounts  were  paid  when  not  only  were  our 
population  and  valuation  comparatively  small,  but 
especially  are  we  to  remember  that  they  were  paid 
when  the  productive  forces  of  the  State  were  confined 
within  the  narrow  limits  of  the  old  dispensation  of 
her  industry,  which  has  since  passed  away  and  been 
succeeded  by  another  and  a  better.  Those  great  pro- 
ducers of  the  world,  those  great  tax-payers  of  nations — 
Arkwright,  and  Crompton,  and  Watt,  and  Whitney, 
and  their  compeers  in  experimental  science — had  not 
then  waved  their  wand  over  the  dead  level  of  human 
employment.  The  field  of  our  producing  power  pre- 
sented at  that  period  only  the  few  original  occupations 
of  men,  undistinguished  and  undiscriminating,  plod- 
ding unconsciously  towards  that  higher  destiny  of  the 
division  of  labor  which  is  blessing  our  day  with  a 
harvest  of  public  wealth.  Steam  and  water  had  not 
yet  been  tamed  to  fellowship  with  the  click  of  the 
loom  and  the  song  of  the  spindle.  Nevertheless,  in 
all  the  simplicity  of  their  pursuits,  and  in  all  the  pov- 
erty of  their  resources,  the  men  of  that  period 
responded  at  length  to  every  public  claim,  redeemed 
at  length  every  public  levy,  and  transmitted  to  us  the 
record  of  their  sacrifices  without  the  taint  of  repudia- 
tion, and  without  so  much  as  the  blemish  of  non-pay- 
ment.    The  heritage  which  they  bequeathed  to  us,  and 


18  MASSACHUSETTS    AND   THE   WAR  TAX. 

which  for  half  a  century  we  have  improved  and  embel- 
lished, this  temple  of  our  present  Zion,  ought  now  to 
fade  away  forever  before  our  eyes,  if  with  bold  faith, 
if  with  exultant  alacrity,  we  do  not  gather  around  it 
with  all  our  hearts  and  devote  all  our  resources  to  its 
defence. 

I  have  thus  spoken  of  Massachusetts  in  the  past, 
her  contributions  to  the  common  liberties,  when  her 
financial  abilities  were  thus  restricted.  But  how  shall 
I  speak  of  her  present  capacity  to  grapple  with  the 
exigent  demands  of  this  crisis  1  The  glow  of  a  new 
dispensation  now  pervades  the  domain  of  her  art  and 
labor  and  commerce.  Under  the  impulse  imparted  by 
machinery  and  the  useful  arts,  she  has  thrown  off  the 
identity  of  the  past  age,  and  mounted  to  an  elevation 
of  productive  power  and  wealth  that  finds  no  parallel 
among  American  communities.  Since  the  payment  of 
the  last  national  debt,  such  progress  as  before  would 
have  been  the  measure  for  ages,  has  been  concentrated 
into  the  space  of  a  single  generation.  Within  a  period 
of  thirty  years  the  property  of  the  State  has  been 
increased  from  208,000,000  to  842,000,000,  or  more 
than  four-fold.*  This  valuation  is  a  standard  measure 
of  our  industry,  and  the  consideration  of  it  in  connec- 
tion with  the  returns  of  our  production  will  justly 
inspire  the  highest  hope  of  the  future.  I  have  already 
said  that  the  ability  of  the  people  to  respond  to  taxa- 
tion  is    to    be  estimated  chiefly   by  their  producing 

*  State  valuation  returns. 


MASSACHUSETTS    AND   THE  WAR  TAX.  19 

ability,  and  in  this  respect  Massachusetts  is  in  a  condi- 
tion to  disregard  all  the  croakings  of  the  sad  or  the 
disaffected.  Fortunately  we  can  point  to  a  well  estab- 
lished system  of  statistical  returns  of  our  industry, 
which  has  already  furnished  volumes  of  facts  upon 
which  the  credit  of  our  securities  defies  the  scrutiny 
of  the  markets  of  the  world. 

The  first  of  these  volumes  was  issued  nearly  twenty- 
five  years  ago.  When  Mr.  Webster  was  in  London 
in  1839,  certain  English  capitalists,  who  had  been 
applied  to  for  money  upon  Massachusetts  bonds,  the 
first  ever  issued  in  a  foreign  market,  came  to  him  for 
information  touching  the  credit  of  this  parvenu  on 
the  stock  list.  "  I  went  to  my  trunk,"  said  Mr. 
Webster,  "  and  took  out  an  abstract  of  the  official 
returns  of  the  amount  of  the  productive  labor  of 
Massachusetts.  I  put  this  into  the  hands  of  one  of 
these  inquirers,  and  told  him  to  take  it  home  and 
study  it.  He  did  so,  and  in  two  days  returned  and 
invested  200,000  dollars  in  Massachusetts  stock." 

If  to-day  the  State  desired  to  raise  five  or  ten  mil- 
lions upon  six  per  cent,  stock  at  par,  our  last  abstract 
of  industry,  published  in  1855,  woidd  bo  the  only 
agent  we  should  need  to  negotiate  the  loan.  With 
these  returns  in  my  hand,  I  plead  our  cause  and  our 
ability.  If  there  be  another  community  of  a  million 
and  a  quarter  of  inhabitants  which  can  place  a  cata- 
logue of  its  industry  by  the  side  of  this,  expressive  of 
such  versatility  of  talent  and  diversity  of  pursuit — so 


20  MASSACHUSETTS    AND   THE   WAR  TAX. 

blending  utility  with  taste,  and  comfort  with  luxury 
— so  interminjjlins:  ajjriculture  with  what  we  term  the 
useful  arts,  and  stamping  upon  both  the  seal  of  a 
common  interest  and  a  common  destiny, — so  abso- 
lutely gigantic  in  some  of  its  larger  products,  and  in 
some  of  the  smaller  as  delicate  and  attenuated  as  a 
woman's  perceptions  and  a  woman's  fingers  can  make 
it, — so  pervading  the  entire  State,  every  town,  village, 
hamlet,  household, — I  know  not  where  it  is  to  be 
found,  certainly  not  on  this  hemisphere.  Figures  of 
speech  are  dwarfed  by  the  figures  of  these  statistics. 
They  exhibit  an  annual  specified  production  of  labor 
in  the  State  of  three  hundred  millions  of  dollars ;  and 
it  was  the  opinion  of  the  Secretary  who  compiled 
them  that  more  accurate  returns  would  swell  the  list 
to  three  hundred  and  fifty  millions,  or  more  than  a 
million  of  dollars  for  every  working  day  in  the  year. 
I  have  no  doubt  that  similar  returns  in  1 860  would 
have  exhibited  an  amount  of  productive  labor  in  the 
State  of  FOUR  hundred  millions  of  dollars.  It  has 
been  said  that  after  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution, 
General  Washington,  at  a  dinner  table  in  the  midst  of 
a  party  of  friends,  Northern  and  Southern,  expatiated 
upon  the  great  results  he  anticipated  for  the  South 
under  the  new  order  of  things,  with  her  rich  produc- 
tions and  profitable  exchanges,  and  turning  to  one  of 
his  Northern  guests,  exclaimed — "  But  what  will  the 
North  doT'  "We,  Sir,"  was  the  prompt  reply — "We 
will  live   by  our  wits."     And  the  fulfilment  of  the 


MASSACHUSETTS    AND    THE   WAR   TAX.  21 

prophetic  reply  has  been  consummated  m  our  day, 
when  a  State  that  could  be  carved  eight  times  out  of 
the  map  of  Virginia,  produces  annually  from  her  fields 
and  workshops  more  than  the  ordinary  value  of  the 
cotton  crop  of  the  United  States,  all  counted  from  the 
ruins  of  Jamestown  to  the  banks  of  the  Sabine.  It 
would  have  startled  the  federal  convention  of  1787 
with  a  new  sense  of  the  grandeur  of  its  work,  to  have 
been  told,  that  before  all  then  born  should  pass  to 
their  sleep,  the  little  Bay  State,  at  that  time  without  a 
spindle  to  respond  to  its  waterfalls,  should  turn  out  in 
a  year  fifty  millions  in  cotton  and  woollen  fabrics ; 
that  in  1850  it  should  produce  one-sixth  part  of  the 
aggregate  manufactures  of  the  Confederacy.  Cotes- 
worth  Pinckney  would  have  been  amazed  if  he  had 
been  told  that  his  State  should  so  soon  yield  a  cotton 
crop  of  thirty  or  forty  millions,  but  it  would  have 
been  a  greater  shock  to  his  nice  sensibilities  if  he  had 
been  assured  that  Massachusetts  would  so  soon  give 
a  boot  and  shoe  crop  of  fifty  millions.  In  a  variety 
of  phrase  and  comparison  I  might  state  the  footings 
of  the  Massachusetts  abstract  by  the  side  of  the  cen- 
sus returns  of  the  United  States  in  1850;  claiming 
for  her  one-sixth  of  the  iron  works,  two-thirds  of  the 
fisheries,  one-sixth  of  the  imports,  and  one-t(Mith  of 
the  exports,  one-third  of  the  wliole  ocean  tonnage, 
and  four-fifths  of  the  whale  fisheries ;  that  wliik>  com- 
mercial circles  are  agitated  every  day  to  the  year's  cud 
from  New  Orleans  round  to  New  York,  in  Liverpool, 


22  MASSACHUSETTS    AND   THE  WAR  TAX. 

in  London,  by  the  quotations  of  cotton,  there  were  a 
couple  of  hundred  dealers  in  our  own  provincial  Bos- 
ton, whose  quiet  sales  of  raw  and  manufactured 
leather  amounted  to  sixty  millions.  I  might  extend 
these  facts  and  illustrations  to  tlie  consumption  of  the 
State,  and  might  show  that  there  is  not  probably  on 
the  face  of  the  earth  a  community  of  equal  numbers 
whose  consuming  habits  and  capacity  make  so  large 
and  constant  demand  upon  every  branch  of  production 
that  yields  sustenance,  or  comfort,  or  luxury.  But  I 
forbear.  These  are  the  glimpses  of  more  extended 
views  that  might  readily  be  furnished,  but  they  are 
sufficient  to  indicate  the  variety  and  extent  of  our 
productive  forces.  It  all  comes  from  the  division  of 
our  labor,  the  organization  of  our  industry,  the  sepa- 
ration of  our  employments,  the  application  of  experi- 
mental science  and  the  useful  arts.  It  is  this  which 
makes  our  little  territory  imperial.  The  abstract  to 
which  I  have  referred  discloses  a  wonderful  multi- 
plicity of  occupations  in  every  quarter  of  the  State, 
united  by  constant  and  copious  admixture  of  interests. 
It  reveals  production,  and  exchange,  and  consumption, 
under  almost  every  conceivable  style  and  denomination 
of  labor.  The  Commonwealth  presents  a  scene  of  life 
and  energy,  of  action  and  achievement,  that  possess 
all  the  interest  of  martial  drama.  Not  an  aiTQy  has 
come  upon  the  field,  marshaled  its  squadrons,  and 
contested  its  issues,  each  man  ranging  under  his  banner 
and  responding  to  his  bugle,  with  more  of  method 


MASSACHUSETTS    AND   THE   WAR   TAX.  23 

and  subordination  than  is  displayed  by  more  than 
three  hundred  thousand  men  in  Massachusetts  as  they 
come  forth  in  the  morning  of  every  day,  file  off  under 
their  chosen  pursuits,  and  lay  down  their  trophies  at 
nightfall  upon  the  altars  of  home.  Some  three  or 
four  years  since  the  Secretary  of  the  State  published 
a  table  of  the  numbers  and  occupations  of  all  male 
persons  in  the  Commonwealth  over  fifteen  years  of 
age ;  and  I  find  that  they  number  three  hundred  and 
thirty-four  thousai;id,  a  third  of  a  million,  and  are 
classified  under  one  hundred  and,  fifty  difi"erent  occu- 
pations. As  the  eye  passes  over  these  printed  columns, 
and  the  imagination  follows  these  men  to  their  various 
posts  of  employment — to  the  tranquil  fields  of  agri- 
culture, to  the  resounding  workshops,  to  the  busy 
marts  of  trade,  to  the  mysterious  and  prolific  sea, — to 
the  ponderous  machine  that  is  measured  by  a  hundred 
or  a  thousand  horses,  and  the  subtle  conceptions  of 
genius  that  work  their  honest  ten  hours  in  iron,  brass 
and  copper,  and  never  tire, — to  the  fine  fashioning  of 
rude  woods,  and  the  textiles  wrought  from  the  raw 
fibres  of  every  land, — in  short,  through  the  vast  labora- 
tory of  mortal  skill  which  is  ever  at  its  work  trans- 
muting air  and  water,  the  earth  and  all  that  can  be 
enticed  out  of  it,  aye,  and  thought,  and  reason  itself, 
into  productions  for  the  market  and  supplies  for  man- 
kind ; — with  what  a  comprehensive  signification  does 
our  idea  of  the  productive  labor  of  Massachusetts 
become  invested ! 


24  MASSACHUSETTS    AND   THE   WAR  TAX. 

Such  resources,  capacities,  developments,  —  such 
accumuhitions  of  stores,  supplies,  and  wealth, — these 
sources  and  springs  of  our  power, — are  now  brought 
to  the  test  of  consecration  for  the  life  of  the  Govern- 
ment. I  can  have  no  doubt  that  they  will  bear  us 
securely,  independently,  triumphantly,  through  the 
struggle.  They  are  now  interrupted,  but  they  cannot 
be  destroyed.  They  will  shortly  and  with  renewed 
vigor,  again  assert  their  supremacy  over  the  compe- 
titions of  other  States,  over  the  vicissitudes  and  adver- 
sities of  human  lot.  They  will  bear  us  again  to 
fortune.  Soon  again  the  Commonwealth  will  resound 
with  the  echoes  of  industry  through  all  her  borders, 
and  spread  the  sails  of  her  commerce,  the  pride  of 
the  seas. 

The  bill  now  under  consideration  especially  invites 
our  attention  to  the  aspect  of  our  local  finances.  It 
levies  what  T  concede  to  be  a  large  tax,  1,800,000 
dollars.  The  nearest  approximation  to  this  which  we 
have  before  had  in  the  present  generation,  was  in  1857, 
and  that  was  only  half  the  present  amount.  Some 
idea  of  the  practical  application  of  this  bill  upon  the 
people  of  the  cities  and  towns,  may  be  derived  from  a 
document  sent  in  to  the  House  by  the  Secretary  on 
Saturday  last,  showing  the  aggregate  of  taxes  assessed 
in  the  State  in  1861  ;  from  which  it  appears  that  the 
total  amount  taxed  for  county,  city,  and  town  purposes, 
the  last  year,  was  7,300,000  dollars.  Assuming  the 
same  amounts  to  be  raised  the  present  year  by  the 


MASSACHUSETTS    AND    THE    WAR   TAX.  25 

several  municipalities  for  local  purposes,  it  will  be  seen 
that  this  bill  will  add  nearly  twenty-five  per  cent,  more 
to  the  public  taxes.  The  necessity  for  this  is  certainly 
to  be  regretted  ;  but  let  the  people  consider  that  it  is 
part  and  parcel  of  the  necessities  of  the  war.  Of  the 
amount  proposed  to  be  raised  by  this  bill,  700,000 
dollars  is  for  the  national  tax  assumed  by  the  State, 
and  nearly  500,000  dollars  is  for  reimbursing  to  the 
towns  their  allowances  to  the  families  of  volunteers. 
The  people  of  Massachusetts  need  not  be  reminded 
that  what  amounts  they  expend  in  aid  of  the  families 
of  our  brave  volunteers  will  be  re-coined  to  them  in  the 
wealth  and  treasure  of  the  heart.  I  do  not  forget  that 
the  towns  have  incurred  and  will  continue  to  incur  still 
other  expenditures  on  the  war  account,  which  will  not 
be  included  in  the  reimbursements  from  the  State 
Treasury.  The  whole  subject  is  prolific  in  suggestions 
of  local  economy  to  the  people  of  every  city  and  town 
in  the  Commonwealth.  Severe  and  persistent  retrench- 
ment in  municipal  expenses,  is  a  paramount  duty  and 
necessity  which  will  have  to  be  learned  in  the  next 
twelve  months.  I  have  requested  the  Secretary  to 
furnish  me  with  a  statement  of  the  aggregate  tax  which 
will  be  paid  into  the  treasury  hf  the  fourteen  cities  in 
the  State,  upon  the  basis  of  this  bill  of  1,800,000 
dollars;  and  I  find  their  proportion  to  be  1,00(),'287 
dollars.  I  submit  whether  the  legislative  authorities 
of  these  fourteen  cities,  whose  appropriations  for  the 
year  probably  are  yet  to  be  made,  cannot  save  a  con- 


'2G  MASSACHUSETTS    AND   THE   WAR  TAX. 

siderablc  proportion  of  this  million  by  measures  of 
local  retrenchment ;  and  the  several  towns  might  doubt- 
less measurably  follow  the  example.  Such  considera- 
tions are  now  suggested  to  the  home  authorities  by 
every  motive  of  local  duty  and  public  patriotism,  and 
if  not  heeded  this  year,  they  are  very  likely  to  be  en- 
forced the  next  by  the  several  constituencies. 

I  pass  now  for  a  moment  to  the  general  condition  of 
the  finances  of  the  State,  present  and  prospective.  The 
war  found  many  of  the  loyal  States  under  very  heavy 
liabilities.  It  found  Massachusetts  substantially  with- 
out a  debt.  I  do  not  mean  that  we  have  not  outstand- 
ing scrip  to  a  large  amount,  at  home  and  abroad ;  but 
its  ultimate  and  certain  extinguishment  has  been  pro- 
vided for  by  ways  and  means  that  will  involve  no 
necessity  of  much  taxation.  The  condition  of  our 
public  liabilities  at  the  present  time  may  be  easily  and 
satisfactorily  stated.  First,  we  have  loaned  the  scrip 
of  the  State  to  certain  railroad  corporations  to  the 
amount  of  5,825,000  dollars  ;  but  for  the  whole  of  this 
amount  the  State  holds  securities,  and  these  companies 
may  be  relied  upon  to  pay  the  debt.  From  this  estimate 
the  Troy  and  Greenfield  Railroad  is  not  excepted, 
because,  the  State  having  given  its  confidence  to  the 
enterprise,  I  feel  bound  to  believe  that  this  confidence 
has  not  been  misplaced.  Second,  we  have  issued 
upon  the  account  of  the  Union  Loan  Fund  of  1861, 
2,217,500  dollars,  which  may  be  under  the  law  carried 
up  to  3,600,000  dollars ;  but  this  for  the  most  part  will 


MASSACHUSETTS    AND    THE    WAR   TAX.  27 

t 

be  reimbursed  to  us  by  the  general  goA'^ernment,  a 
portion  having  already  been  refunded.  Third,  we  have 
outstanding  scrip,  issued  from  time  to  time  upon  sundry 
accounts  of  State  charities  and  for  other  purposes, 
amounting  to  1,589,000  dollars;  and  for  these  loans 
we  have  provided  various  extinguishment  funds  which 
will  probably  in  the  aggregate  be  nearly  or  quite  suffi- 
cient to  redeem  the  debts  at  their  maturity.  Under 
this  triad  classification, .  then,  I  find  our  public  debt 
may  be  stated ;  and  I  find  it  also  apparently  provided 
for.  Very  likely  there  may  be  some  deficiencies;  and 
it  is  not  by  any  means  improbable  that  our  expen- 
ditures for  national  purposes  and  coast  defences  may  not 
altogether  fall  within  the  legitimate  rule  of  reimburse- 
ment by  the  United  States.  But  such  deficiencies  can- 
not in  any  sense  be  a  serious  burden  upon  the  State. 

With  the  amount  which  the  present  tax  bill  will 
supply,  and  with  the  added  amounts  of  the  annual 
revenue,  we  advance  in  good  condition  up  to  January 
next.  At  that  time  I  estimate  that  the  State  will  have 
to  provide  for  reimbursing  the  towns  on  account  of 
military  expenses,  '2,500,000  dollars.  Add  to  this,  if 
you  please,  somewhat  by  conjecture,  1,000,000  dollars 
to  cover  all  deficiencies  before  referred  to,  all  local 
military  claims,  and  unforeseen  contingencies,  and  you 
have  made  up  a  debt  of  '3,500,000  dollars,  'i'his 
amount  can  readily  be  raised  within  two  or  three 
years ;  while  the  ordinary  revenue,  increased  by  the 
measures  of  taxation  proposed  by  the  Finance  Com- 


•JS  MASSACHUSETTS    AND    TIfE    WAR   TAX. 

iiiittc(^  upon  tilt'  funds  of  sundry  corporations,  will  be 
;iinpl\  sufficient  to  meet  our  current  expenses,  large  as 
\]\v\  arc  or  arc  likely  to  be.  It  is  not  a  forced  conclu- 
sion, tlicrcfor(>,  to  say  tbat  tlie  present  and  prospective 
financial  condition  of  the  State  is,  so  far  as  can  now  be 
seen,  free  of  embarrassment  or  apprehension.  1  advise 
every  man  who  holds  a  dollar  of  Massaqhusetts  scrip, 
to  continue  to  hold  it  and  cherish  it.  Our  credit  is 
second  to  that  of  no  State  in  the  world.  As  if  to 
gild  the  very  edges  of  our  scrip,  we  have  during  the 
present  session  provided  that  both  mterest  and  prin- 
cipal shall  be  paid  in  coin.  It  has  been  stated  with 
historic  sanction,  that  when,  long  ago,  the  little  prov- 
ince of  Holland  owed  a  debt  of  25,000,000  dollars,  so 
just  was  her  sense  of  national  faith  that  the  interest 
was  always  ready  to  the  day,  and  whenever  any  portion 
of  the  principal  was  paid  the  public  creditor  received 
his  money  with  tears.  There  is  certainly  no  good 
reason  why  the  credit  of  Massachusetts  should  not 
now  awaken  similar  emotions,  provided  only  the  sensi- 
bilities of  the  public  creditors  remain  the  same. 

Mr.  Speaker,  in  these  remarks  I  have  confined  myself 
to  the  financial  relations  of  the  war,  and  to  our  mate- 
rial ability  to  support  the  government  through  this 
great  crisis.  The  manner  of  conducting  the  war  I 
have  not  discussed,  because  that  rests  in  the  discretion 
and  conscience  of  those  who  have  assumed  the  trust 
of  guardians  of  our  liberty.  If  through  any  fault  of 
theirs  the  contest  shall  fall  short  of  the  sublime  object 


MASSACHUSETTS    AND   THE   WAE   TAX.  29 

which  free  and  loyal  men  have  at  heart,  the  people 
will  not  be  answerable.  I  cannot  refrain  from  repeat- 
ing in  this  connection  the  language  of  Mr.  Burke, 
uttered  under  circumstances  of  national  peril  and 
when  appalling  fancies  disturbed  his  mind: — 

"The  people  [of  Massachusetts]  look  up  to  that  Government  which 
they  obey,  that  tliey  may  be  protected.  They  have  in  all  things 
reposed  an  enduring,  but  not  an  unreflecting  confidence.  That  con- 
fidence demands  a  full  retumi,  and  fixes  a  responsibility  on  the  minis- 
ters entire  and  undivided.  The  people  stand  acquitted,  if  the  war  is 
not  carried  on  in  a  manner  suited  to  its  objects.  If  the  public  honor 
is  tarnished,  if  the  public  safety  suffers  any  detriment,  the  ministers, 
not  the  people,  are  to  answer  it,  and  they  alone.  Its  armies,  its 
navies,  are  given  to  them  without  stint  or  restriction.  Its  treasures 
are  poured  out  at  their  feet.  Its  constancy  is  ready  to  second  all 
their  efforts.  They  are  not  to  fear  a  responsibility  for  acts  of  manly 
adventure.  The  responsibihty  which  they  are  to  dread,  is,  lest  they 
should  show  themselves  unequal  to  the  expectations  of  a  brave 
people.  There  is  a  responsibility  which  attaches  on  them,  from 
which  the  whole  legitimate  power  of  this  country  cannot  absolve 
them  ;  there  is  a  responsibility  to  conscience  and  to  glory ;  a  respon- 
sibility to  the  existing  world,  and  to  tliat  posterity  which  men  of  their 
eminence  cannot  avoid,  for  glory  or  for  shame ;  a  responsibility  to  a 
tribunal,  at  which  not  only  ministers,  but  even  nations  themselves, 
must  one  day  answer." 

But  I  indulge  in  no  such  apprehensions.  I  have 
an  undoubting  faith  in  the  honest  man  who  is  at  the 
head  of  the  government,  that  he  will  be  just  to  all 
parts  of  his  country,  and  not  forgetful  of  the  princi- 
ples upon  which  he  was  borne  into  office.  The 
people  of  Massachusetts  believe  in  no  object  worthy 
of  exhausting  their  treasures  and  slicdding  tlicir 
blood,    less    than    the    absolute    and    unconditional 


30  MASSACIIUSKTIS    AND    THK    WAR   TAX. 

recovery  of  tlu^  authority  of  the  government,  if  that 
be  possible.  They  believe  that  to  be  possible.  And 
if  in  tlio  ijeccssary  train  for  the  accomplishment  of 
that  purpose,  any  tradition,  or*  custom,  or  relation,  or 
domestic  institution  stand  as  an  obstacle — whatever 
it  mav  be — let  it  be  swept  away.  The  national  life 
is  the  ])rincipal ;  all  other  things  are  incidents.  The 
war  will  terminate  ingloriously  for  us,  if  we  reach 
any  other  than  honorable  peace.  And  honorable  peace 
is  to  be  conquered,  not  purchased,  or  compromised. 

It  will  come  at  last;  the  war  cannot  continue  any 
very  great  length  of  time.  And  with  peace,  it  is  not 
difficult  to  foresee  that  humanity  may  assert  her  title 
to  some  share  in  the  victory,  though  it  be  in  the  best 
of  all  the  ways  of  human  reform,  by  simple  operation 
of  natural  causes  rather  than  by  prolonged  violence. 
With  peace,  it  is  not  difficult  to  foresee,  as  one  of 
the  consequences  which  may  be  evolved  by  Divine 
Providence  out  of  this  tragic  epoch  in  the  world's 
history,  that  liberty — as  we  learn  the  word  from  the 
stately  prose  of  Milton,  from  the  serene  benevolence 
of  Washington,  from  the  impetuous  democracy  of 
Jefferson — may  vindicate  her  claim  to  the  poet's 
numbers : — 

"  More  great  than  ever  now,  and  more  august, 
Now  glorified,  she  from  her  fires  does  rjse  ; 
Her  widening  paths  on  new  foundations  trust, 
And  opening  into  larger  parts  she  flies. " 


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s  ;iii;;!i  ill! Piili  III  i i 


